An ex-senator, a former CIA officer, and an Iraqi mogul lobby Congress for a private army, led by Saddam’s officers, to take on the terrorists that have trampled America’s proxies.
What could go wrong?
Wasn't ISIS started by, and is still led by, Saddam's officers? You can't make this up.
Create 2 sides, & sell weapons to both? That sounds rather familiar.
Twerks fur mi!
Where indeed are the Statesmen who can "Just Say No!" ?
And, ahem, the Stateswomen?
What happened to an ounce of prevention? Not profitable enough? Just think how little a microgram of prevention would have cost, back when we had the options of not overthrowing yet another government, to, you know, prevent an audit of some corporations shady bookkeeping.
Revolutions are always justified, but invasions and rebellions alike are always betrayed ... before they're even finished?
A reminder: Fiat currency operations are NOT about individuals making personal gains in the stock market. It's about making people aware of aggregate options worth exploring.
In a conversation years ago, Warren Mosler asked me: "How do you get people to explore their options." That was a killer question that stopped me in my tracks, and honestly, I've been researching it ever since. And, the answer is: that much is actually known, most of it is actively ignored, it's not formally taught in K-12 schools, and the task gets bigger every year ... and harder, every day that we neglect it. What is known is subtle, trivially easy, not immediately profitable, but is the actual key to sustaining short term, medium term and long term cultural evolution. It's all about an ounce of preventive preparation avoiding the spiraling repair costs associated with narrow, get-rich-quick schemes.
Where indeed are the Statesmen who can "Just Say No!" ?
And, ahem, the Stateswomen?
What happened to an ounce of prevention? Not profitable enough? Just think how little a microgram of prevention would have cost, back when we had the options of not overthrowing yet another government, to, you know, prevent an audit of some corporations shady bookkeeping.
Revolutions are always justified, but invasions and rebellions alike are always betrayed ... before they're even finished?
A reminder: Fiat currency operations are NOT about individuals making personal gains in the stock market. It's about making people aware of aggregate options worth exploring.
"How do you get people to explore their options."
Personal or aggregate.
Good writing! It only remains to qualify why it's important to teach the importance of exploration of options and that in large measure is because human primates love to dominate but hate being dominated ( the major theme of Christopher Boehm's book "Hierarchy in the Forest") therefore options must be continuously explored as a means of achieving a balance between these two primate instincts.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed this train of thought, Schofield.
ReplyDeleteA trickle of people in all disciplines eventually see the need to synthesize or "cross-train" among disciplines. That serves no purpose, however, unless we fold it into the tempo of INVOLVING emerging citizens (our kids) in emerging tasks.
Increasing Cultural Adaptive Rate requires accelerating the tempo of TOTAL AGGREGATE PRACTICE.
Roger, be careful of what you read in the Washington Post!
ReplyDeleteISIS wasn't created by former Saddam loyalists. It was part of Al Qaeda until it was booted out for being too extreme. Apparently Al Qaeda was horrified by their extreme brand of Wahhabism, its gratuitous brutality and wanted nothing to do with them!
Since its departure from the Al Qaeda franchise, ISIS has gone from strength to strength, leaving Al Qaeda in the shade. It did so by recruiting former Iraqi military and intelligence officers to train and lead its jihadi stormtroopers so as to win battles against the Iraqi army, Syrian army, and the various Kurdish and Shia militias. ISIS will only be crushed by an Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian alliance, which can't come too soon. These rabid psychopaths need to be put down as soon as possible. It doesn't help that we and our Gulf State allies keep helping these maniacs in an insane attempt to overthrow Assad.
John,
ReplyDeleteThanks for confirming the point that ISIS is staffed by ex Iraqi Army Officers, placed there (one way or another) by us. Now we want any ex Iraqi Army Officers not working for ISIS to be paid mercenaries to kill their former colleagues in ISIS.
How many wrongs add up to a right?
Roger, if interested, Patrick Cockburn's books "The Jihadis Return", and "The Rise of Islamic State" pretty much tell the whole story. His other books on Iraq are also excellent: "Out of the Ashes", "The Occupation" and "Muqtada". In fact, if there is one journalist who's worth following on the Middle East it's Patrick Cockburn. Quite simply, no one knows more about Iraq and the rise of ISIS than Cockburn.
ReplyDeleteHe's also the brother of Andrew Cockburn and the late, very much missed Alexander Cockburn, founder and editor of CounterPunch. What a talented family!
There's also a quite brilliant article by Hugh Roberts on Syria in the latest London Review of Books: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n14/hugh-roberts/the-hijackers
Yes, John, I've followed Cockburn on Iraq & ISIS. That doesn't detract from the point that we now have people in DC proposing to arm what's left of Saddam's Army Officers to fight those of Saddam's Army Officers who've joined ISIS.
ReplyDeleteRoger, the only way the US will be able to do what Washington is said to be proposing would be to overthrow the Shia government in Baghdad and replace it with a reconstituted Sunni minority dictatorship led by Saddam's Baath Party. The likelihood of that is about the same as the state of Mississippi introducing sharia law. The scale of the US defeat in Iraq has yet to be comprehended even by the anti-imperialist Left, who believe in the fantasy that the Iranian-backed Shia government in Baghdad is a "puppet regime".
ReplyDeleteSaddam's officer corps have either joined the Sunni extremists or have gone home. Those who have joined the jihadis aren't going to join a US proxy army. Those who have essentially retired probably won't join up. What's in it for them? Take the battle to ISIS and get no reward at the end of it? The Iranian-backed Shia government in Baghdad will still be in power.
This alleged "puppet regime" is democratically elected, demanded the end of the occupation, refused to sign the "status of forced agreement" that the Bush administration demanded (the original agreement was essentially permanent occupation), is on extremely friendly terms with Iran and Hezbollah, has initiated a civilian nuclear programme, is vehemently opposed to Saudi Arabia and the other US-backed Gulf states, to name but a few things that has driven Washington ape shit. All in all, the US invasion has decimated US power in the region.
The neoconservative planners in Washington are fantasists and are incapable of dealing with reality. That's why the Brzezinski realists have been empowered. The Brzezinski crowd are setting policy now: make a deal with Iran, leave Russia out in the cold, and limit the rise of China. The Eurasian "grand chessboard" strategy. The Brzezinski crowd are smart enough to know that the Shia government in Baghdad is going nowhere. A Sunni-led Iraq ain't gonna happen. For the moment, they need to limit the damage done by the neoconservatives.
If anything, it's the House of Saud that will need propping up by US forces, and that's going to be the occupation to end all occupations. Do you invade and occupy the holiest places in Islam or do you let the House of Saud fall? And that's before you try to factor in whatever new mad sh*t the degenerate ISIS stormtroopers are planning: will they attack pipelines and oil tankers? take the war into the US-backed Gulf States and Turkey? 9/11-style attacks across Europe in order to draw Nato into an invasion?
If you actually sat down and tried to create a worse situation, you'd be hard pressed to do it. The neoconservatives are the dumbest, most incompetent motherfu**ers in US government history, and now they're planning more of the same squared!